Bees do it. Butterflies do it. Moths do it.
In fact, lots of insects do it - pollinate our flowers and edibles.
That is why this week - National Pollinator Week - is so important. The week spotlights the significant role that pollinators play in our everyday lives, and it encourages home gardeners to establish habitats that benefit pollinators.
"I could not grow flowers without the work of beneficial insects," said Lisa Ziegler who has a two-acre flower farm and online gardening seed and tool shop in Newport News, Va. "They are nature's hardest workers that maintain and balance the environment by keeping the bad bugs in check and pollinating flowers."
Other horticulturists readily agree.
"Seventy-five percent of all flowering plants, including one-third of the foods we eat, require animal pollination," said Helen Hamilton, a retired biology teacher, past president of the John Clayton Chapter Virginia Native Plant Society
Insects are among the hardest working members of Mother Nature, toiling largely unnoticed in gardens - pollinating flowers, recycling dead material, eating each other, Hamilton said.
"A healthy garden has clumps and drifts of plants of all sizes and shapes, closely planted; not much habitat is available for pollinators when a few decorative plants are surrounded by yards of mulch," she said.
Pollinators also need homes near flowering plants where they can nest, hibernate and hide from predators, Hamilton added. A wildlife habitat can be simply constructed of hollow stems, dead logs with drilled holes, bark, stones or wooden pallets and perforated brick. These "pollinator hotels" provide safe homes for bees, beetles, wasps, lizards, and many other beneficial animals.
In addition to nectar plants with overlapping bloom times, pollinators appreciate a water source such as a birdbath or shallow dish lined with pebbles, according to Grace Chapman, director of horticulture at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va.
"Bees especially need to collect water to cool their hives," she says.
In Norfolk, Va., Norfolk Botanical Garden's summer-long exhibit - Mission Monarch: Project Milkweed - focuses on pollinators, including the monarch butterfly which is disappearing in great numbers because of habitat destruction.
McClatchy-Tribune
Source : http://www.leadertelegram.com/features/home_garden/article_9e5be9f3-c4c0-5e26-8005-639b0a7ebdda.html
